Bad news and good news

Hey everybody. I missed posting in what turned out to be a pretty eventful couple of weeks, so let me bring you up to speed.

The bad news: Jews for Jogging is going singular. Jew for Jogging. Unfortunately, Beth had to drop out of training this past week due to a knee injury. You can read more details about it in her post below, but the long and the short of it is, Beth won't be running the marathon. I am, however, pleased to say that she is still coming to New York to help with my charity poker tournament, and she is also planning on going to Disney to cheer for me.

Wondering what happens with the donation you already made? Well, if you donated directly to me, your donation still counts towards my fundraising goal. If you donated directly to Beth and your donation was processed, your donation will become a general donation to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. If you used our joint website to donate, half of your donation goes to my fundraising, and half goes to LLS as a general donation. If you've mailed money to Beth that hasn't yet been sent to LLS for processing, you can expect to get your check back in the next few days. At your option, you are more than welcome to keep the money, donate to my fundraising, or donate to LLS. If you'd like to submit a contribution to my fundraising, please mail it to:

Adam Moser
14 Linford Road
Great Neck, NY 11021

or donate online at:

http://bit.ly/moser

So how can there be good news? Well, I'm still running the marathon, and I am still committed to raising at least $3,700 on my own. Of that, I've raised over $2,000, including money that I sent to LLS for processing a few days ago but hasn't yet shown up in my account.

On top of that, while she will not be fundraising, I am happy to announce that my girlfriend, Shelby, will be running the race with me. Don't feel bad that she signed up too late to participate in the fundraising aspect - this will be her sixth marathon, and over the first five, culminating with this month's NYC marathon, she's already raised over $12,000 for LLS.

And, on top of that...I set a new personal longest distance ever today! A few weeks ago, I bested my longest run by breaking through the 10 mile mark, but today I went further than I ever have before, including walking. The previous high was 13.1 miles, set as a run/walk at the 2004 Virginia Beach Half Marathon and matched last week as a run. Last week's run, incidentally, was about 39 minutes shorter than at Virginia Beach, at 2 hours flat. Today I went 14, and I ran the whole way, finishing in about 2:09.

My legs are absolutely killing me.

Last bit of good news - I'm keeping the "grinds my gears" segment. Today, what really grinds my gears is my own perception of distance. I estimated the distance to the Throgs Neck Bridge as 7 miles, and figured I'd just do an out-and-back. I was off by 2 miles. In both directions. Running 4 miles right around my house at the end of a 14 mile run is much, much less fun than you might think.

In closing, I'm very sorry to see Beth go, I was really looking forward to running the race with her. But, LLS will still get some great support from people like you, I'm now really looking forward to running the race with Shelby, and Beth is going to try to compete against me in a triathlon next summer, since I obviously destroyed her this time around. So all in all, it sucks, but I'm still very excited about the marathon.

And yes, I will still be blogging. See you next week.

Jogging Jewsus is No Longer a-jogging

I don't know how many people know this. But I injured myself relatively badly last Saturday morning during my run. Running the marathon looks like a no go. It's extremely disappointing, and I am pretty irritated but I guess my old body just couldn't handle the stress. If you are interested in the details read on.

I was at about mile 3.5 on my 12 mile run last Saturday morning when all of a sudden I felt a pop in my knee. I didn't know what it was but I took another step and felt an immense amount of pain radiating up my leg. I stopped for a minute and tried to walk on it and my knee was in a ridiculous amount of pain.

Unfortunately I was running on the trail and still about half a mile from where the Team In Training people were and there was no place for cars to back up to. I started gimping along and immediately called my boyfriend to come pick me up. It really really sucked cause I had to gimp like half a mile back. But the hero that he is, Jack met me about 100 feet from his car and carried me to the car.

I haven't gone to the doctor yet, but if the pain continues I will. Speculation is that I pulled something in my knee. I would like to push through it and train, but this is my only body and I don't want to screw up my knee more. I have been limping, but my knee is starting to feel better and I have earned the affectionate nickname from my co-workers as "Hopalong Cassidy." I am sorry if I let anyone down, and I guess I am pretty upset. However, I am still flying to Orlando to support Moser and I wish him well in spite of all the crap talking.

Time for one last you know what grinds my gears: You know what really grinds my gears...training for a marathon and running miles and raising money for a great cause and then having your supposedly young body crap out on you. Please continue to donate to Moser and this is an amazing cause that benefits so many people. Anyways, at least for now... Jogging Jewsus out!

Chocolately Sickness

Not as much has happened on the Beth front as on the Moser front. Last week I thought I hurt my knee so I essentially only did the elliptical one day. However, Sunday I was signed up for the Hot Chocolate 15k. For those of you not down with our friends the metric system that's about 9.3 miles. I really did not want to run Sunday but I woke up and dragged myself there.

It was actually pretty cold Sunday morning, but I knew I would warm up during the run. Therefore, I wore sweats there and figured I would wear a long sleeve shirt and shorts to run in. So, I was sitting there freezing and waiting for the race to start with my sweats on. Approximately half an hour before the race starts I checked my "gear." This essentially means I decided to stand around in shorts and a long sleeve shirt in 40 degree weather for about half an hour. For those of you thinking...that sounds cold...yes it was.

According to the offical time I wound up finishing the race with about a 9 min 8 sec mile pace. However, I am pretty sure it would have been a lot faster, but I stopped for a potty break and I think the people in the port o johns were having stomach problems because although there was no line, it took me about 3 min to get into the stall. Therefore, I give myself the benefit of the doubt and say my time was actually much faster if not for my pit stop. :)

Needless to say, the race is the gift that keeps on giving and I am now pretty congested. I also got to enjoy watching old people blow by me while I was running. I know we compete against ourselves when we run, but it was somewhat demoralizing to have the 60 year old guy blow past me. Since I am so fast, I am guessing he was a former Olympian. I have been taking it wasy since Sunday, but I inted to get back in the saddle and go for a run tomorrow....yeah.

On a side note, congrats to Moser's lady who ran the marathon last weekend and set a PR.

Laziness pays off

For a week with almost no working out, I have a surprisingly large amount of stuff to talk about. First, the no working out. Yeah...that was a little disappointing.

After doing that 11 mile run last Saturday morning (at a surprising sub-9:00 pace), I kept slacking off, until Wednesday, when I was determined to get to the gym and do hill repeats. I did...sort of. I guess you can't really call them "repeats" when you only make it through one before you stop to cough half a lung up.

Methinks I may have overestimated how fast to run in a hill repeat.

After that I again slacked off until the sun went down Saturday night. Only then was it dark, cold, and rainy enough to really enjoy a 12 mile run in Central Park. There's something oddly serene about being one of only a few people running in Central Park the night before the NYC marathon takes over. There's also something a little terrifying about it. It's a good thing cops drive around often. I'm pretty surprised I got through a 12 mile run with virtually no working out the entire week up to that point, but I'm not one to question miracles.

In an effort to avoid another week like the last one, I've already gone out since this past Saturday's long run. Today I ran a 9:00/mi 10K around my neighborhood.

Speaking of the NYC marathon...it was pointed out to me this week that I have a wedding to go to the night before the 2010 marathon. Unfortunately, that means that I cannot run the 2010 NYC marathon, as I had been planning to do for some time. Instead, I'll finish the races that I need to guarantee entry, and I'll defer the guaranteed entry to 2011. In the meantime, I plan on attempting a triathlon or two in 2010 to stay in shape.

Speaking of having to cancel on marathons, Jews for Jogging endured a pretty big scare this week. Seems Beth's firm has been working on a big case for a couple of years, and the trial date is currently set for January 11, the day after the Disney marathon. For a couple days, we didn't know if Beth would have to skip some of the event weekend or bail altogether, but now it looks like she will be participating.

Also this past week, I submitted my recommitment form to Team in Training. It showed that I've met at least 25% of my fundraising goal, and binds me to raising the rest of the goal in exchange for reserving spaces for me in the marathon, at the hotel, on a plane, and at the various TNT events throughout the weekend. The Illinois chapter's recommitment deadline isn't for another couple of weeks, so Beth hasn't done hers yet.

Finally, today's pet peeve: drivers who keep their brights on in the face of a pedestrian. Don't get me wrong, I understand the substantial benefits of increasing a driver's field of vision with an oncoming pedestrian. Still, once you've established that there is a runner/walker in your way that you need to avoid, keeping the brights shining directly in their face is more than a little annoying.

Anyway, that does it for me. Look for the next post, when I will (hopefully) have some information about an exciting fundraising event you might be interested in. See you next week.

41 miles later...

My last post was on Oct 11, and since then, I've logged over 41 miles running. That includes two long runs (10 miles last week and 11 miles this morning), 2 sprint interval runs (this week's sucked), and a 5 mi run, along with some cycling and strengthening. I am pleased to say that it looks like I am now a sub-9 minute mile runner, having completed today's 11 miler at an 8:51/mi pace.

Beth said she's doing 10 miles tomorrow. Not bad. It's no 11, but hey, that's alright. It doesn't mean she's a bad person. There are plenty of other things she does that mean that.

Two weeks ago I ended the post by saying I planned to stick to the workout schedule that week. That didn't so much happen. Instead, I ignored all but 2 days of the schedule. Good times.

This week, I was much better - I did every workout except one (which I made up for by doing more than scheduled today). I'm pretty pleased with that. That's 5 days of working out this week, probably a new record for me.

Speaking of personal records, I've never run 11 miles before. I've done 10 three times - once in the 2004 Virginia Beach Half Marathon, once in the 2008 Soldier Field 10, and once last week (last week's was the fastest by about 15 minutes). I did go more than 11 miles in the half marathon (that's 13.1), but I walked the last three miles or so, so I don't count it as my longest run.

I'm ripping the "grinds my gears" bit off from Beth, since she ripped it off from Family Guy. Things that grind my gears: people who don't move out of the way even though I'm saying "excuse me!" The last few miles of my run today were up 1st Ave from 34th to 90th. At one point I came across a group of people walking 4 abreast with giant umbrellas, taking up the whole sidewalk, and ignoring me. As I passed, I made some comment thanking them for taking up all the available space. Their response: "The sidewalks aren't for runners." Really? Are there wheels attached to my feet that I'm not aware of?

Anyway, it's quarter to 3 in the morning, and I'm going to sleep. See you next week.

Oy my knee!

So much has happened since my last blog. I will start by clearing the air. Yes, I did compliment Moser. However, in my defense it was his birthday and I was delirious with exhaustion. I probably also complimented his couch and told his lamp I loved it. Who knows what went down. Anyways, Moser and I did run the 7 miles in Great Neck. They have ridiculous amounts of hills. Thank goodness IL is flat.

So in addition to running with Moser I have been going to my running club and socializing with my fellow good looking runners in the greater Wicker Park area. However, the running club will now thin out seeing as how the Chicago Marathon occurred this last weekend.

I attempted to run for 60 minutes on Saturday. I was in fact doing amazing *pats self on back* and approximately 8 min 30 seconds miles when about 48 minutes in I felt intense pain in my knee. So, as all good runners would do I stopped running. Unfortunately, it was a windy Chicago day and I was in mere running clothes when without physical exertion the weather would require a coat. So, I started to freeze. Therefore, I started to run to avoid the cold and before I knew it I fell over from pain. I once again stopped and hobbled "igor-style" for the last mile of my run. Not my most promising moment and I am letting my knee recover.

This past weekend was also the Chicago Marathon. Although I didn't run it I did sell my soul to Nike for about 5 hours and hock their overpriced goods in a tent. I got to see the first guy finish who was of course from Kenya and he set a new course record of 2 hours and 5 min and some odd seconds. To break it down that's like 4 min and 45 second miles for like 26.2 miles. That is insane and when the guy finished he looked like you or I would after a somewhat rousing game of racquetball and didn't look nearly as tired as I do after even like 8 miles. I guess that's why he's a pro. I also heard people talking after the marathon, and upon inquiring how one guy was feeling after the marathon, his exact words were "My body feels like shit but in my head it was amazing." I guess that kind of sums up the marathon experience.

Now for another installment of you know what really grinds my gears. You know what really grinds my gears: People that have no problem letting their dog crap on the very narrow running trail, and when you look at them like um..aren't you going to clean that up, they act like they have places to be and can't be bothered. If you have time to stroll your dog down by the lake...you have time to pick up his poop.

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3 months to go

Yes that's right, yesterday was exactly 3 months before the 2010 Disney Marathon. I went to the Saturday morning TNT group run and did 8 miles in Central Park. The loop formed by 72nd, 102nd, and East and West Park Drives is 4 miles, so we ran it twice. There are about 40 or 50 TNTers that meet in the Park for the runs, but we split up into different levels of expertise (and some people are training for a half marathon), so I ended up spending most of the run with 6 or 8 people that were going my pace, 9:15 or so/mile.

Everyone was complaining about the hills in Central Park. I invite them to run anywhere around Great Neck. You'd think it would be relatively flat, what with it being a small peninsula, but that is really not the case.

Today was the Chicago Marathon - congratulations to Kristin, Andrea, Mike, Dan, Lynn, and anyone else that ran it! Beth was scheduled to work in a tent at the race, so I'm sure she'll dazzle you with stories of frigid 35 degree weather and other pleasant things.

I also found out today that I know how to change a bicycle tire. I had no idea that I had that ability. My bicycle is back in working order, and I celebrated with a 10 mile ride to recover from yesterday's long run. I now carry a spare tube, a patching kit, and a tire pump, so that I'll never have to walk my bicycle home on a flat tire again.

This week, my only goal is to stick to the entire training schedule, including strengthening workouts, which I've been awful at keeping up with. Probably been better at it than Beth, though. See you next week.

Missed a week

Apparently I never posted last weekend. Let me regale you with a quick summary of that week - I set a 1-mile PR (personal record) with a time of 6:59 in the Fifth Avenue Mile, my seventh of nine qualifying races for the 2010 NYC marathon, and did a 9:00/mi 5K the day before that and a 9:12/mi 6 mi long run the day after.

Did you know that a donation of $50 could register one person to be a bone marrow donor? We're more than 20% of the way to our goal, but we need your help! Find out more at: http://bit.ly/jewsforjogging.

I've been using my new Asics Gel Kayano 15 sneakers. I got them a couple weeks ago. Until then, I thought my Brooks Adrenalines were great. It turned out I was wrong. They're good, but the Asics provide a lot more cushioning, and that's important, because my stride is godawful and I hit the ground hard. For a week or two I was using the new shoes every other run, but for my birthday, I got a second pair, so now I can rotate between the Asics for running and only use the Brooks for bicycling (next spring I'm going to upgrade to clips for bicycling). Why rotate? It's good to give running shoes a few days between runs, to allow them to fully dry out and retain their shape better.

Something amazing and incredibly rare happened yesterday. Beth complimented me. I know, I'm as shocked as you are. She and our other friend came in from Chicago for my birthday and stayed at my house, so Beth and I did our long run this weekend together. Her schedule said 8 miles, mine said 6, so we split the difference. After we finished, at a 9:13 pace, she told me that she found the hills to be pretty brutal, and was impressed that I run near my house all the time. Ahh, to live in the midwest, where the main geographic feature is the horizon...

I'm pretty sure she also admitted that I'm a much better person than her, but don't quote me on that.

See you next week.

Aah Chicago in the Summer

So today I kicked it up a notch and I did 8 miles. That was what the Team in Training Schedule said to do. It was perfect running weather and approximately 70 degrees. We live about 2 miles from the lake front. Therefore, I ran the 2 miles there and 2 miles along the lakefront.I have to say it made me appreciate what I love about Chicago. The lake was gorgeous, as was the skyline. Chicago skyline in the summer has to be seen at least one point in your life. It's an amazing break from the hustle and bustle of the city. There are beaches, boats, restaurants, water, set amid an amazing backdrop of Navy Pier and the Chicago skyline. I would have taken a picture, but no way in heck I am carrying a camera during my run.

When all was said and done I wound up doing my 8 miles, one of the longest runs I have done, in about 1 hour and 13 minutes. Not bad at all and it worked out to like 9:12 miles. I even surprised myself a bit. Next weekend I will be in New York, and the great forces that are Beth and Moser will combine for a training run. Now I have talked to Moser and he did 6 miles a 9:12. I am not going to say I did better...but I certainly did go longer...

Ironwoman

So I just read Moser's post and that is sad and all. However, in the immortal words of Nelson from the Simpsons, ha ha! Anywho, I have been staying on top of training. I didn't go on the group run Saturday morning even though I woke up to do so. If you knew how comfortable my bed was you would totally understand. However, I decided to run yesterday. So by the time I wasted my day away and decided to go running it was 4 pm and I was ready to hit the streets.

4:02 pm starts raining. Therefore, I did my 6 miles at the gym on the treadmill. I also did 150 sit ups, 60 assisted pull ups, and 15 push ups. You totally should get tickets to my gun show. I am also going to run tonight and keep up with my program of running and spinning throughout the week. It is perfect running weather in Chicago (mid 70's) and hopefully it stays that way. I need to hold onto the nice weather and wonderfulness of Chicago for another two weeks until it gets cold and the spite sets in.

I have decided to end every post with a segment that I derived from Peter Griffin, ala Family Guy and a little thing I like to call "You know what really grinds my gears."

You know what really grinds my gears, people who go to the treadmill right next to yours when the gym is almost empty and make sure to grunt and wheeze, and then look over at you just to make sure you know exactly how hard they are working out.

What goes down...

...must come up. Especially on out-and-backs, like the one I ran yesterday. Mile 2 is pretty much all downhill, which is very nice...except for when it becomes Mile 4. Then things take a turn for the worse.

Still, my pace on the back half matched my pace on the front half, 9:01/mile, so I guess I handled the hill pretty well. Today was a make-up for missing yesterday morning's group run before heading down to Baltimore for the Red Sox game (go Sox!).

Also this past week, I learned that I will never ride my bicycle on the service road, or without my cell phone, or without some sort of tire repair kit.

As I was turning from New Hyde Park Road on to the westbound service road, a one way, 3 lane, 40 mph entry and exit point for the Long Island Expressway, a nail ripped a hole in the side of my tire, and cars were nearly knocking me over at high speeds. But wait - it gets better! There was pretty much no place for me to stand on the side of the road, because of the bushes and trees, so I got to stand in a pack of bushes, holding my bike up and away from the road, waiting for some break in the traffic.

I finally got one and managed to ride my bike, with the flat tire (walking would have been too slow and dangerous), to Community Drive, from which I figured I would walk home (about a 2 mile walk). But wait - it gets better! I couldn't walk along the service road to Lakeville Road - a much better and less hilly choice - so instead I got to walk down Community Drive, with a large downhill and a very large, very steep uphill on Pond Hill Rd.

I made it back home, where I learned that I could have been picked up by car if I had had my cell phone with me.

A good time was had by all. Now I have to go get ready to watch Giants-Cowboys. Go Giants! See you next week.

Getting my run on.

So, I have in fact been working out this week. I am starting to set up a rhythm, and even found people to run with. I missed the group run yesterday morning because the bf and I are searching for homes. I think we found the perfect place for us. 1800 square feet, near public transit, 2 blocks from the lake, walking distance to some restaurants. Only problem it was the first day we went out. Either we are decisive or just dumb.

Anyways back to the work out thing. Today I did 6 miles and Friday I did 5 miles. Both days I was able to run by the lake and it was beautiful. Nothing better than the Chicago lakefront a nice day. I need to try to remember how much I love it when winter comes and I once again despise all that is the Midwest.

Btw, thanks to everyone who donated!!! It means soo much to us. This training and run is all for people we all loved who have been affected.

Season Kickoff

We're almost at $1,000! Make your donation online today at:

http://bit.ly/jewsforjogging

TNT's NYC chapter officially kicked off the winter season today, with an introduction of all the coaches, mentors, and TNT staff. It was a pretty big group - about 20 or 25 of them, for the 40 or so runners. Among the highlights was when they asked cancer survivors to stand up and introduce themselves. About 8 got up on stage, 2 of whom were diagnosed and recovered when they were teenagers (one has been a TNT coach for the past 5 or 6 seasons), and 2 of whom are currently undergoing treatment (one was diagnosed only 3 months ago). The last person to go was the mother of the team's honored patient, a six-year-old boy who was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of three and who will be involved with the team as we train for Disney.

After the meeting, all 60 of us walked a few blocks over to Central Park and did a 30 minute out-and-back at a "conversation pace" - that is, slow enough to comfortably talk to your neighbors, about a 10:45 pace for me. The point wasn't so much for distance (I was among the faster people, meaning I went among the furthest distances, and I didn't even hit 3 miles), as it was for getting 30 minutes of cardio exercise in and meeting some of the other people running this season.

Overall, it was a good experience. Everyone I talked to was really nice. It was a great change of pace from talking to Beth.

Aside from that, I had a pretty busy week, workout-wise. I ran 10K in under an hour on Tuesday night, then had the last pre-season group run with TNT on Wednesday night, a 4 mile run at conversation pace. I took Thursday off, then dragged myself off my couch and to the gym on a rainy Friday for half on hour on the bike and a little time on some machines.

The last part turned to be pretty stupid. I hadn't done that in months. My arms are ridiculously sore now. Typing actually hurts, so with that, I'm going to end this post. See you next week.

Back from Jersey

Did you know that 56% of your tax-deductible donation goes to patient/community services and research? Help us in the fight against leukemia, lymphoma, and other cancers by visiting:

http://bit.ly/jewsforjogging

You can also learn more about where your money goes here.

I'll admit it. Beth has me beat in mileage - my best week so far is 15.48 (my total since August 29 is 20.48 - you can follow my training log online here). Unlike her, however, I also threw in some bicycling and - wait for it - pilates. Yeah, that's right. Pilates. Now, I don't mean to imply that this somehow makes me better than her...but it does.

Wednesday night was my first group TNT experience. I had run the Virginia Beach 1/2 marathon with TNT in 2004, but I lived in Maryland and raised money for my sister's chapter, in Delaware. As a result, while I got all the great benefits TNT has to offer during the event weekend, I wasn't able to join in the group training. This season hasn't kicked off yet, but TNT NYC did organize (for the first time) a couple of pre-season Wednesday night workouts, and this time, I am taking full advantage.

This week's pre-season workout was a 1/2 hour beginner pilates session, followed by a 2.5 mile out-and-back in Central Park at "conversation speed," the speed where you can comfortably chat with the person next to you without out of control heavy breathing, about 11:30/mile. There were about 20 other people at the workout. The pilates session was tough, but I wasn't anywhere near as sore as several people told me I would be. This leads me to believe that I most likely have superhuman strength.

...Or I was doing it wrong. Definitely one of the two.

Aside from that, I haven't done much noteworthy in the past week. I did a couple of 4 to 5 mile runs, a 10 mile bicycle ride, and I'm trying to remember to work in at least a couple of core and muscle strengthening exercises, usually push-ups and crunches, after a run or bike ride.

Over the weekend, instead of working out, I had a rehearsal dinner, wedding, and post-wedding brunch in New Jersey, so I traded in my running shoes for drinks, dancing, and deep-fried oreos. Turned out it wasn't much of an excuse - two people at the wedding who are training with TNT for the NYC marathon had run 16 miles the morning of the rehearsal dinner. Thanks to Shelby and Tara for showing me up :)

Tomorrow I run in the morning, then Wednesday night is the last pre-season workout before training kicks off on Saturday.

Thanks for the support!

So I am back from my long hiatus of posting on the Jews for Jogging blog. Training is starting and I am slowly starting to put the pizza boxes down, dust off the crumbs, and start running. I have been running with a running group on Tuesdays and doing spinning on Wednesday. This Friday I also ran with a small group and even woke myself up at 5:30 am on Saturday to be at the run by 6:30 with the Team in Training group. I have run about 17 miles last week collectively, and I am trying to build my mileage up. I will also take the time to update you every so often as to my slow and turtle-like progress in regards to my marathon training.

I would also like to thank everyone for all of the support. Running isnt easy but when its for a good cause and I am looking forward to the sense of accomplishment. I know times are tough but any money at all you would be able to donate would be greatly appreciated and please go to our fundraising page at:

http://bit.ly/jewsforjogging

for information about why this cause is so important and has affected our lives. I will post again soon, just cause I know all you JFJ blogging fanatics missed me. :)

Pre-season

Thanks to everyone who has donated so far! We've reached 10% of our fundraising total! Donate today at:

http://bit.ly/jewsforjogging

I don't know about Beth, but I'm planning on posting every week after the TNT group runs on Saturday mornings. Unfortunately, the NYC chapter's winter season hasn't officially kicked off yet - the first winter season group run isn't until September 12. Still, they did give us a 4 week "pre-season" schedule to use (which I started following yesterday, the second to last day of week 2), and I figure in addition to memorializing the start of following the TNT training schedule, I should also get in the habit of writing a post weekly.

Seems like just yesterday Beth was telling me that she was thinking about running Disney and I, indecisive about how I was going to eventually gain entry to a New York marathon, realized that it would be a great incentive to do the 9 qualifying races, that I could raise money with TNT while doing it, and that Beth and I could motivate mock each other to keep going. It was actually back in December, about 8 months ago. Time really flies.

I'm calling myself an "intermediate" runner (in your face, every gym coach I ever had), so yesterday's pre-season was 40 to 50 minutes of easy running, which I accomplished with 5 miles on easy hills at a 9:14 pace. Probably a little faster than I should have gone, but oh well. Today's was 30 to 40 minutes, so I did the same types of hills over 4 miles at a 9:04 pace.

They also have pre-season group runs on Wednesday nights for a few weeks before the official season kickoff, but I couldn't make last week's. I'm planning on going to this week's. It will be my first ever organized group run. I'll have to show off my mad skillz.

Oh, also, I should probably mention that last Saturday, I successfully slept through the Harlem 5K, which would have been my 7th qualifying race for NYC. Today I'm signing up for the Continental 5th Avenue Mile. I'm going to hold off on signing up for anything else until I see the TNT training schedule. Hopefully I can schedule the qualifying races around the same time I would be doing the same distance with TNT.

One last thing - I started a training log on Google Documents. Admittedly, the push-ups and crunches were pretty awful, but hey, I haven't done either in almost a year, the running is what matters most, and pre-season doesn't count. Anyway, according to Google, all you need is this link to view:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AjYT-XBo5UH9dE9SVWRLcFhEd3YzTG83S0EzYzlsVkE&hl=en

See you next week.

Fundraising Goal: $7500

That's right, we've started raising money for the Disney Marathon! Our goal is $7,500, and we've already got $125, so we are well on our way.

Want to donate? Click here:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/il/wdw10/TeamJewsforJogging

Now that we've started fundraising and training is about to get into gear (NYC kick-off is September 12), we'll be updating this blog weekly with our latest training successes and shenanigans, so stay tuned. If you use an RSS reader, like Google Reader or Yahoo!, don't forget to add this page to your feed by using the Subscribe To section on the right side of this page.

Remember, every little bit makes a difference. Thank you.

Dear Friends and Family...

Dear Friends and Family,

On January 10, 2010, Adam and Beth will both run the 26.2 miles of the Disney Marathon, in support of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training (TNT) program. Why are we doing this? Aside from a healthy dose of insanity, it's because of our desire to help LLS's mission: to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

Adam

July 22, 1992 started off as a normal day. I went to summer camp in the morning, and we took a field trip to see the Mets beat the Dodgers, 7 to 5. My mom picked me up. It started to get weird when she didn't make the turn to go to our house that she always made. That's when she told me we were going to the hospital. At the hospital, they told me the bad news - my sister, Stacey, had leukemia. The good news was, as an otherwise healthy 11 year old with acute lymphocytic leukemia, her prognosis was excellent. About two and a half years, a couple of trips to the ICU, a great vacation in Disney World, and more spinal taps than we can count later, Stacey's chemotherapy treatments ended, and she is now a completely healthy 29 year old. Stacey and our entire family owe a huge debt of gratitude to LLS, an organization that helped pave the way in a number of tests and treatments utilized by her amazing team of doctors in the pediatric oncology unit at North Shore University Hospital.

Beth

Everyone knows someone who has been affected or who has lost a loved one to cancer. To me, it hit very close to home. When I was six years old, my mother was diagnosed with colon cancer. It was a long battle for her, and when I was 9 and my mother was 42 she finally succumbed to the disease. My mother was a strong lady and when she was diagnosed the doctors told her she had six months to live. She battled for three years for the sake of seeing her children grow up just a little longer. The fight and determination my mother had has stayed with me. She fought hard, and every day as I train for this marathon, no matter how hard the training gets, I think of how hard my mother fought and of all the other people who have both succumbed to cancer and fought to overcome the disease. Although nothing can change the past, LLS can change lives in the future.

Thank you!

26.2 miles will not be easy - for either one of us. But 26.2 miles through the parks of Disney World one Sunday morning is nothing compared to what cancer patients and their families have to go through every single day. For them, the finish line is not some line at Epcot Center. It's a cure. With your help, we can make that happen.

Donations are 100% tax-deductible, and more than 74 cents of every dollar you donate will go directly to funding LLS's mission. Please donate by visiting:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/il/wdw10/TeamJewsforJogging

Don't forget to track our progress on our blog:

http://JewsForJogging.blogspot.com

Thank you, and we'll see you at the finish line!

It begins!

Fundraising starts today, and official training kick-off (for the NYC chapter) starts on September 12! Here we go...

199.5!

I haven't posted in a while, but today deserved an entry. After work, I went out for a 15 mile bicycle ride, around Lake Success, into Little Neck, up into Kings Point, and back south towards my house. Then, I stepped on a scale.

I just weighed in at 199.5 lbs.

At the beginning of the year I clocked in at about 225. I never had a goal weight, and I still don't. My only real goal is to run two marathons in a year, and I just kind of figured the weight would come off while I did that. Still, it was great to pass a milestone like 200. As far as I can remember, it's the first time I've been under 200 lbs since not long after I ran the Virginia Beach Half Marathon in September, 2004.

In other news...Beth registered with Team In Training this past weekend, and they're e-mailing me a registration form early next week, so mileage and fundraising are going to start to build up quickly very soon.

Hiatus over

Granted, I haven't posted in a few weeks, but to be fair, I haven't run in a few weeks either. No, I wasn't being lazy, it was actually intentional. It all started about three weeks ago...

I was signed up for a 4 mile race on Saturday, May 30. Then, I found out that Beth, who was going to be in town that weekend with her boyfriend, for his graduation and his cousin's bat mitzvah, was going to be free on Sunday, so I suggested that she bring her running shoes. I wasn't thrilled about running two days in a row, but hey, if we're training for a marathon together, it'd be nice to occasionally run together, right?

Of course, it wasn't until about Friday night that I found out that I was wrong about the race. It wasn't on Saturday. No, instead, it was Sunday morning, and as much as I didn't want to run twice in two days, I was even less excited about running twice in one day. Still, I wanted to run with Beth, and there aren't many qualifying races left during the year that I could reasonably do, so I decided to do both and just walk most of the race.

Sunday morning, I drove to near the start line by about 7:45, 15 minutes before the race. I did not factor in anywhere near enough time to find a parking spot. I figured it would be easy. I was wrong. After almost getting into a fight with one guy who was standing in a spot to save it for his friend still driving around (I actually got out of the car and got in his face before backing down because I realized the only thing I could do was drive my car into him, and that wasn't really a viable option), and circling for about half an hour, I finally found a spot almost half a mile from the start line, at 8:15. I ran to the start line, which was a great way to begin my plan of walking most of the race. The race was a loop, and they had already converted the start line into the finish line for timing purposes, so they told me I couldn't run across the start line, but that I could run the race and still get credit. I did, and probably walked about half of it. Still, because I couldn't run over the start time, my official personal time was calculated from the "gun time" (the actual start of the race) and not from when I crossed the start line, and that, in addition to the fact that I walked half the race, gave me an official time of 1:02:59, a 15:44 pace, which just barely missed setting a new world record for fastest time ever.

My IT band was not exactly perfect after that, but after Beth and I saw the Mets beat the Marlins at Citi Field, we went back to my place and went out for another 4 miles. This time we both ran the whole thing, at least until Beth mildly twisted her ankle turning into the final stretch. It looked a little swollen, and she reminds me of a horse, so I put her down. It was best for everybody.

Then my leg went to hell. I mean, it really sucked. I couldn't walk up stairs. Later that night, in response to my status message on facebook ("IT band syndrome...it's not just for the left leg anymore!"), my friend Andrea, who runs a LOT more than I do, told me she had suffered the same problem, and that I should take 2 or 3 weeks off from running, and in the meantime get a foam roller. I took the time off, just got the foam roller a few days ago, watched a video with some ditzy but, ultimately, persuasively attractive girls, started doing the part where they talk about working the IT band, and finally got back out today.

Today's run was 5K, just a little jog to get back into things. I finished in 30:50.44, a 9:55 pace. I'm planning to do two more of those during the week in tune up for a 5 mile race on Father's Day, which will be my sixth qualifier of the nine needed for the 2010 NYC marathon. Meanwhile, Beth's talking about never running again or something. What a wimp.

Another race and something new

Saturday I did a 10k in Central Park for my fourth qualifying race. This time, it was the Healthy Kidney 10k. According to my trusty Forerunner 205, it took me 1:01:27 to run 6.3 miles, a 9:45/mile pace. The official time was 1:01:29 over 6.2 miles, for 9:55 a mile. Either way, I've done 4 out of the 9 races I'll need in order to qualify for guaranteed entry to the 2010 NYC marathon.

I wasn't even going to go out tonight. I hadn't done anything between the 4 mile race on Sunday and the 10k on Saturday, that stupid IT band thing was hurting, and it was already dark out and my gym was going to close too soon. But, Beth was going to go for a run, and far be it from me to let her beat me, so off I went.

I got dressed to go out in warm clothes, and I was about to go out, when I realized I was dressed from neck to ankle in black at 10:15 pm. Considering how stupid I think pedestrians are when I'm driving and they're dressed all in black at night, I figured I'd better do something about that. It turns out I don't own anything reflective, and there's no way to attach my bicycle lights to my shirt. So I got the yellowest shirt I owned, threw it on top of the black, and headed out. There are plenty of benefits to dressing safely, chiefly not getting hit by a car, but looking good is not one of them.

I did two new things tonight. First, I did the same 2.5 mile loop around Russell Gardens that I've done plenty of times before, but I've always done it clockwise, so I reversed it. It's pretty remarkable how much a route can change just by switching directions. Suddenly you notice inclines that were too slight to feel like downhills when you had done it the other way. I'm pretty sure the uphills were tougher counterclockwise, so between that and and other new thing I did, I modified the loop the second time a keep a little of it a little more flat, but I still kept the biggest hills.

The second new thing I did was that I added sprint intervals. In addition to the last .2 miles, I had 3 quarter mile sprints and one 1/8 mile sprint (only because that section was flat for less distance than I expected). For those I did about 8 min miles, and the rest of the time I did about 9:50 miles, ending up with an average pace of 9:28 over 5 miles. It was definitely not the longest run I've done, but with the inclines and the sprints, it was one of the more challenging runs I've done.

1/3 of the way to guaranteeing entry

After being sidelined from running with what my cousin diagnosed as IT Band Syndrome for about a week and a half, I was finally completely pain-free on Thursday and Friday, and with a race in Central Park scheduled for Sunday, I went out for a jog on Friday evening when I got back from work. My sister was in town and wanted to join, so she and I headed out for a 5k loop around Russell Gardens and part of Great Neck Estates.

About halfway through, my sister had to stop to walk (she has a bad back), but she told me to keep going, so I did. The rest of the run felt like it was entirely uphill. It was just like having a conversation with Beth. Still, I did it, in under 30 minutes, and with not that much pain in my leg after.

The next day, my cousin told me it would be alright for me to take some of my brother-in-law's mobic, a prescription anti-inflammatory, to keep my leg from getting bad again, and it turns out, mobic is my new best friend. That stuff works great. I took it before the 4 mile race on Sunday, and never felt any pain, other than some soreness for a couple of days after.

This week, I have a 10k in the park on Saturday morning, and I'm hoping that I'll have time to get 4-5 miles in tomorrow night to stay loose for it, since I've done nothing since the race on Sunday. This stupid class that I'm taking to stay licensed as an attorney in New Jersey has taken up basically all of my free time, though, and I need to finish homework for that before I can go out to run.

Oh, the pain...

So, that little new pain I mentioned at the end of my last post? The one that started creeping in while I was walking home to cool down? Yeah...that turned into what has now been almost a week of pain. It forced me into a pretty ugly limp, especially going up stairs. Luckily, after being at a consistent level of hurting until Saturday, I woke up Sunday much improved, and I think I'm up to about 80%. Still, since I'm ridiculously busy for the next three nights, I'm going to keep resting the leg until Friday, when I'll head out and see if I can do a 5k, in preparation for the 4 mile race I'm doing on Sunday (Mother's Day). Should be fun.

I know what you're thinking..."Where's Beth been? She's the funny one." First of all, you're wrong. She's not funny. Second, she's just a lazy slacker. No big deal. She's just not as good a person as I am.

Yeah, I'm still here.

Yeah, so, I haven't been so much for the running and exercising lately. It's not (entirely) intentional; I've had a busy couple of weeks. I have to take this class in New Brunswick twice a week after work, and I used most nights other than those to do homework for it, and that's going to be going on for the next 4 weeks. I have not been getting out anywhere near as much as I hoped, but I tried to make up for it the past few days with the great weather we had here.

Beth said Chicago had crummy weather all weekend. I say she was just looking for an excuse out.

Since my last post up to this past weekend, I think the only exercise I did was 6 miles at the gym, so after basically doing nothing for a couple weeks (although more than Beth if I had to guess), and with the temperature in the high 70s to low 90s (yes, 90s) all weekend, I went to make up for it. Saturday I circled around Lake Success. My goal when I went was 5 or 6 miles, but after about 3 and a half I ran into my grandmother (not literally) and stopped to chat for a minute, and when I started up again I got that stitch in my right abdomen and it kept me from going past four.

Here's my question: what's with runners not acknowledging other runners' existence when they pass from opposite directions anymore? It used to be that there would be a little nod or maybe a hand raise, creating some sort of a silent "yeah, I'm feeling it too...keep it up" moment between the two of you. Nobody does it anymore, at least not around Great Neck. It's a shame. Camaraderie is a positive motivator.

Sunday I took the bicycle out for the first time this year and rode up the path next to the Cross Island Parkway for the first time. There's a jetty at the end (a bunch of rocks jutting out into the water) so I sat down on that for a little while and then headed back. Great view of the Throgs Neck Bridge. It was 10.14 miles round trip, with an average speed of 12.2 mph and a top speed of 22.3.

Tonight when I got back from work I put my running shoes and went out to try that 5 to 6 miles thing again, because it worked so well the first time (see above). I started running up Bayside through Great Neck Estates. I've always made a right on Cedar, but today I went further north to Old Mill (or "Temple Row," if you prefer) and then came back down Middle Neck. I kept an eye on my pace the whole time but I took the distance information off the screen, so I didn't know how far I had gone, but when I was getting close to home I figured I had to be at about 5.5. I was close....I was already up to 4.25. Clearly I had my work cut out for me. I did the one mile loop near my house that I used to do all the time with a few twists and ended up finishing with...6.5 miles done. New longest distance this year. I finished in 1:03:35, a 9:47 pace (6.1 mph). I have to say, I was very pleased with that.

Then I went to get dinner, and right in line with the 1100 calories I burned running, I had...Wendy's. Yeah, it probably wasn't the best choice, but come on, you know you're thinking about a spicy chicken sandwich now.

Oh, I have a new pain. I was just barely starting to feel it when I got home from my run, now a couple hours later, it hurts a decent amount whenever I step with my left leg. It's on the outside of the top half of the leg. Dunno what it is, hopefully it's fine tomorrow.

I probably won't be posting much for the next month because of that class, but training (and fundraising) for Delaware starts only a month or two after that. In the meantime, don't get swine flu!

Time? What time?

Monday and Tuesday, I went straight to New Brunswick after work for a three hour class and didn't get home until after 11. Thursday I went to happy hour and dinner and didn't get home until midnight. Friday I went home, packed, and headed back to the city to watch a ballgame and borrow my friend's apartment for the weekend. That left only Wednesday to work out, which I took full advantage of, by becoming what I can only describe as a regular 6 mile runner.

I was a little offended, though. No less than three consecutive girls got on the treadmill next to me, walked less than a quarter mile, and left. I'm taking it personally.

I'm going home after the Mets game to get pants to run in at the 4 mile race tomorrow and to get my Mets jersey because I got tickets to Citi Field tomorrow afternoon, and while I'm there I might go for a bike ride outside because it's really nice out. It depends on how late it is. Or, I might nap. Could go either way.

10k and a little more

Been a while since I logged in, but that's not from a lack of working out. Like Beth, I'm a little lazy about posting. Unlike Beth, I'm not quite that lazy about getting to the gym. Here's what I've been doing since last week.

On Monday I did 5 miles on a treadmill, starting at 6.1 mph and going up .1 for each mile, with a sprint at the end. It was my first day back to working out after a few days off, and I felt surprisingly loose. That was fine, until Tuesday night, when I went back to do some circuit training and a few other random exercises. Same as last time, the leg exercises were fine, but man, my arms are out of shape. I only got through one set on each of the arm machines, so I'm really going to have to start incorporating that more often. But on the plus side, I did more than double the number of crunches I can do in a day. The workout was only 45 minutes, but the soreness lasted for days and days and days...

Wednesday was the first night of Passover. I got out of work early and caught the train home, and had a little more time before the Seder than I expected. I knew I wouldn't be able to work out on Thursday because of a Seder in New Jersey, and I wanted to get at least a small run before the 10k this morning, so I went to the gym and did 2 miles. After all, 2 miles is better than zero miles. Since it was a short distance I upped the speed a little and finished in under 19 minutes.

On Thursday, I went to another Seder straight from work, so exercising was out, but it was OK, because I was planning to go for a nice bike ride at the gym on Friday.

Friday I bailed on the gym.

Today I had a 10k in Central Park, my second qualifying race for the 2010 NYC marathon. My friend loaned me her apartment for the night while she was sleeping somewhere else, so I woke up an hour before the start, got dressed, and walked out...into the pouring rain and 44 degree weather. Perfect. I'm so glad I brought my brand new running shoes that I've only used twice for that. The mud pit where the bagels were after the run was especially helpful to keeping the sneakers looking good.

Other than the cold and the rain, which truthfully I didn't mind after I had warmed up in the first mile, the run went very well. Officially, I completed 6.22 miles in 1:02:38, a 10:06 pace, and the furthest distance I've run since the Soldier Field 10 Mile last May. Luckily, I braved the rain for a good 15 minutes before the race waiting for my GPS watch to get a signal, and according to high-tech satellite technology, I actually ran 6.37 miles, making it a 9:50 pace. Obviously, I'm going with the latter. I also burned over 1,000 calories.

Tomorrow, I'm sleeping late. I probably will work out, because starting this week, for 5 of the next 6 weeks, I have an awful schedule that gives me no time to do anything but work and class 2 days a week and also gives me an extra hour of work 2 other days. I'm reeeeally looking forward to it.

Missing some Beth blogs

So, I havent blogged in a while. Mostly cause I am lazy. I have however, been getting my work out on. I have been running on the track instead of the treadmill. I dont even track the time I just run and think about how awesome I am doing. In reality I just keep forgetting to check the time when I start and finish. I am guessing I am at about 46-47 minutes for the 5 miles, but thats pretty much conjecture.

I am sure all of you know at this point that today was opening day! So I was all wicked psyched to watch the game while running on the treadmill. However, the game today was on Comcast Sports Net and neither of the accessible gyms had it. Needless to say, it made me really sad, but it also motivated me to run faster to get home. Luckily my Cubbies pulled out the W. A certain other team with some pretty hideous orange and blue color, and a creeper baseball mascot also won, but hopefully this is a good season.

I lost 10 pounds in just 10 days!

Obviously that's not true. See, I'm not really weighing myself all that much. I have a goal weight, and it'd be nice to get to it, but the fact of the matter is, I'm planning to train for 2 marathons in the next 19 months, so I figure I'll get to that goal regardless of how much I track it. So from time to time, when I feel like it, usually once or twice a month, I'll get on a scale, but I'm not really paying all that much attention to it.

The thing is, I always weigh myself on the scale in the bathroom at our house. Today I was at the gym and figured I'd weigh myself on the scale in the locker room. I lost an amazing 10 pounds in just 10 days by switching scales. I recommend you do it if you're trying to lose a lot of weight fast.

At the gym today, after 5 or 6 days off, I remembered that I'm signed up for a 10k this Saturday and a 4mi a week from Sunday, so I went for 5 miles, starting at 6.1 mph and increasing by .1 each mile, with a sprint in the last quarter mile. I think it took about 47 minutes, but I was stuck on a treadmill that was facing a TV with one of my biggest peeves.

First of all, with a couple of exceptions that are for some reason different, you can't watch the individual TVs on the treadmills and bikes unless you plug in a pair of headphones, and while I'd like to watch TV while listening to music, I always forget a second pair of headphones. That means I'm basically running while facing a reflection of me. I know that bugs Beth on the small percentage of times when she's facing her reflection out of the few times she actually exercises, but every gym I've belonged to has something like that, so I'm used to it. The problem is, the treadmill was at a very slight angle to the treadmill. I don't know if this is normal or if it makes me really, really vain, but when that happens, I have a tendency to run towards my reflection, which is a problem for my ankles, because that is not where the conveyor belt is going. But somehow, I managed to make it through

Then, I had Wendy's for dinner. But I got a small meal, and I got iced tea with sweetener instead of Coke, so I figure it worked as a followup to the gym.

On the road again

I wouldn't say I'm all the way up to 100% in recovering from not feeling good on Friday, largely because I'm an idiot and didn't reduce how much I ate even though my stomach hurt, so I didn't want to do my usual 5 miles today. I kept it to a mere 5k, outdoors, near my house.

Why outdoors? One of my friends said it was a nice day for a run. She was almost right. About 5 or 10 degrees warmer, or a sweatshirt or jogging pants, would have been a nice upgrade. Instead, my fingers wouldn't uncurl when I got home until I ran them under hot water for like 10 minutes.

Still, the run was nice. I finished it up in 30:08, and it wasn't really that cold. I was just a little underdressed. As usual for a run near my house, there were small to medium hills all over the place...something people who run in or near, say, Chicago, wouldn't know anything about.

I've learned that I'm a nodder when I run. That is to say, when I pass another runner, I give the little nod to acknowledge them. Really, how tough is it to nod back? I get why someone wouldn't do it in the first place, but I don't get why some people don't do it back when it's done to them.

Long time, no post

Hey there. We haven't chatted in a while. I didn't want you to think I forgot about you. It's just that when I was running on Thursday night (5 miles, same speeds as Tuesday), I was getting really exhausted, and then Friday I think I had some sort of mild stomach bug, and I'm still kind of recovering from that. Plus, I was out of town over the weekend at a charity casino night, where I won a trip to Vegas, baby, Vegas. It's looking like I'll be able to go for a jog at the gym tomorrow, though, so all will be right with the world.

2 workouts for the price of 1 post

I didn't blog yesterday, but I did go to the gym. 5 miles in 47 minutes at 1% incline, my best time ever for that distance. I got there by doing a mile at 6.1, a mile at 6.2, 1.5 mi at 6.3, 1.25 mi at 6.5, and sprinting the last quarter mile from 7 to 8 mph. That also got me past the 5k mark in just under half an hour, which I think is the first time I've ever done that.

As for today, I finally made up my session to get trained on XpressLine, a circuit training set-up at my gym. You can tell it works, because they dropped the "e" in "express" and jumped straight to the X. It consists of 8 machines with 10 exercises that work every muscle in your arms, legs, and chest. The lower-body workouts weren't bad, since my leg muscles are in decent shape. Not from running, mind you, just from holding my fat ass off the ground for the past quarter century. It was when I got to the biceps, triceps, and the rest of the arms and chest that I realized that the 15 push-ups a week I've been doing are not really getting my upper body in the condition I'd like it to be in. My arms are going to feel like dead weights tomorrow.

So here's the awkward part. This guy at the gym, who started college at Maryland, my alma mater, two years after I graduated, which makes me technically geriatric, was showing me how to use the machines. We chatted a little about the campus and the basketball team, who made it 4 or 5 rounds further than anyone thought they would by getting to the 2nd round in March Madness. But for the most part, we were just quiet while I did the machine and he counted reps. It's weird to have someone standing in front of you, watching you while you're working on these machines. There's no place for me to look except directly at him, which gets really awkward and uncomfortable really fast. They need a better system. For example, having a cute girl standing there instead of a dude would have been a huge improvement.

My favorite advice when it comes to exercising is the one I think I've heard the most, from lots of different people. "Don't forget to breathe." I've been alive for over 26 years, and I've forgotten plenty of things: paying rent, showing up for tests, your name, and the outcome of that volleyball match in "Saved by the Bell" when the tall guy the gang brought in as a ringer hurt his foot, to name a few. Not once have I ever forgotten to breathe, no matter what I was doing.

You are only as old as the Wii says

So, I havent written in a while, mostly cause I am lazy. Not too lazy to run 5 miles, but too lazy to write in a blog, go figure. Anyways, I have been running on the track since I went to the personal trainer, as apparently treadmill running isnt as hard. So, I went to the gym last Friday and ran 5 miles on the track, roller bladed about 6 miles on Sunday, and today I ran 5 miles again on the track.

Today I went to a different gym than I normally go to, as it is by my job. I wanted to do spinning class, and I left work a little early. Turns out at this gym you have to sign up for spinning, so I was not able to do spinning. I decided to run on the track instead. However, this track was a lot smaller than the one at the other gym. There are signs all over the track saying to walk on the inner lane. Some smart kids decided it would be intelligent to WALK 3 people across. It was ridic annoying, I literally had to play red rover with them every time I wanted to pass.

Also, on Sunday I tried to do the Wii Fit and play some Wii. According to Wii Fit my Wii age is 50. That's not so good. I think it had to do with my balance, as I have the worst balance ever. However, they have this running game that was pretty fun, but running in place doesn't really work for me.

Late gym trip

I learned something today. My gym is pretty much totally dead after 9 pm. Thanks to that, I have absolutely nothing interesting to say about today's 35 min bike ride workout, on random hills at level 10, going at an average of 98 rpm, for an average speed of 24 mph and a total distance of 14 mph.

Seriously, that's it. Nobody was doing anything weird in front of me, or next to me, or near me. There was only one annoying college-age girl talking about spring break, and that was as I was walking out of the building, so it barely counts (although apparently, everyone finds their first spring break "overwhelming").

I probably wouldn't have even gone to the gym tonight if it wasn't for the fact that Beth told me she was going, and I didn't want to let her post to the blog without getting something up here myself.

Maybe tomorrow's run will be a little more interesting...

New shoes!

I woke up around 7 this morning to get to Central Park to volunteer as a chip clipper for the Colon Cancer Challenge. The CCC is actually 3 events: a 4 mi run, followed by a 1.7 mile Remembrance Walk, and then a 15 K (9.3 mi) run. No, people did not do 2 or all 3 events - you could only sign up for one and you could only run the one you were signed up for. For anybody who's never run a race, a chip clipper cuts the timing chips off of the runners' shoes and collects them, just after they cross the finish line. I picked that job partly because it was advertised to be the one that allowed me to show up the latest, and partly because it was the one I could sit during. As it turned out, I had to get there the same time as all the other volunteers, but given how cold it was when I got there, I'm really glad I wasn't doing something like filling up water cups, which, I'm sure, would have ended up with me covered in water and suffering from hypothermia.

Anyway, the 4 mi runners and the 15k runners all had timing chips (the walkers didn't), so we had a decent amount of work to do. After the first run, we got about an hour break while the walk went by and the 15k started. I ended up working until about noon, then headed home.

One nice thing about joining the New York Road Runners is that I keep running (no pun intended) into people that I haven't seen in forever. Last week I saw two guys that graduated from my high school a few years before me and were friends with my sister. Today I saw one of those same guys, who ended up being stationed at the same chip clipping stand as me. Also, I was taking the chip off one runner's shoe when she started insisting that she knew me from somewhere. It turned out she's one of my good college friend's best friends from home, who I've met a few times before, but haven't seen in at least 4 or 5 years.

Anyway, I got home, and having watched nearly 5,000 people cross the finish line after running either 4 or 9.3 miles, and with the temperature creeping up towards 60, I had all the motivation I needed to take my new running shoes out for a spin. They fit like a glove. If they ever make any real non-aesthetic changes to the Brooks Adrenalines, I'm going to be very upset. 5 miles, a bunch of hills, and 48:08 later, I was back home.

A special shout out this post to my sister Stacey, who got me a Garmin GPS runner's watch last year as a graduation gift. If it wasn't for that, I probably wouldn't have made it through the first two miles today. It seemed like every time I glanced down to check my pace, I was running faster than a 9 minute mile, which I can't sustain all that long.

Beth pointed out to me last night that yesterday's post was probably the first one where I didn't talk negatively about her, so today I'll just mention that since the last time she's posted (and presumably, exercised), which was a full 5 days ago, I've run 15 miles. There, is that better, Beth? I wouldn't want you to feel left out.

Another day, another five miles

I didn't work out on Thursday - I was busy folding socks or something equally important - so I made sure to get to the gym on Friday after work to get a run in. I got on the treadmill for five miles, 1% incline, same speeds as last time (6.1 for 2.5mi, 6.3 for 1.25mi, 6.5 for 1mi, 7.0-8.0 for a quarter mile sprint).

Something I've noticed about being on a treadmill for close to an hour: you get to run next to a lot of different people. That's not necessarily a good thing. Sure, sometimes it's just a bunch of different cute girls, which is great, but often, it means you're just running next to different types of annoying behavior. For example, about half the run, the treadmill next to me was occupied by the loudest treadmiller I've ever heard. Now, I have pretty lousy form, and my feet come down on the ground hard. Anyone who has been in my house when I was coming down the stairs can attest to that. That makes my jogging on a treadmill kind of loud. This guy absolutely destroyed me in decibels...and he was just walking. He wasn't even walking fast. And he was not anywhere close to the beat of the songs I was listening to, which just added to the annoyance.

After he left, another guy got on. Every two or three strides (and that is not an exaggeration) he would wipe the sweat off his face or adjust his headphones. That part was fine. It was the fact that every time he did it, he flung his hand all the way out to the side as it was going to do whatever he was doing. Every 5 seconds I thought he was about to smack me in the nose and kept flinching because of it. That got pretty annoying.

But the big news today is: I got my new running shoes. They're the same kind I've been using for the past 2 or 3 years (Brooks Adrenaline GTS). I love them. I'm going to break these out as soon as there's a day I can run outside, and it looks like that will be tomorrow.

Also tomorrow, I have to be at Central Park at 8:30 AM to fulfill my volunteer requirement for NYC 2010 guaranteed entry. I'll be cutting the timing chips off peoples' sneakers after they cross the finish line, because that job starts the latest of all the volunteer jobs and involves sitting.

Back at it

I've only exercised once in the past week. That's pretty bad for me, but at least now I know how Beth feels all the time.

Since I haven't done anything since the 8k on Saturday, I was pretty set on getting to the gym tonight, even though I had dinner plans in the city after work. I left my house a few minutes earlier than usual (I usually leave at about 6:45) to leave my gym bag in the locker room before getting on the train to go to work. That ended up working out pretty well, since going home before the gym just gives me an excuse to not go to the gym, and this way I didn't have to make that extra stop.

Of course, I figured I'd get right back into the swing of things with a run. Well, technically, it was more like a beer, most of a pulled pork sandwich, some fries, a chicken tender I stole off my nephew's plate, and a run. I'm trying to be really careful with the whole minor-Achilles-tendinitis thing, so I stretched my lower legs out a lot and did my usual warm-up walk. I started the run off at 6.1 mph with 1% incline, and made it...exactly .24 miles. Yes, that's right. Less than a quarter of a mile. I started getting shots of pain in both of my legs and had to hit the stop button.

Impressive, right?

But I'm a stubborn guy, and I wanted to do 5 miles. So I stretched out the legs again, did a really short walk to get back into it, and then started the run over, this time at only 6.0 mph and no incline. After a few minutes, I realized that I now find 6.0 mph to be entirely too slow and boring, so I went up to the 6.1 I was originally planning on and put the incline back on. By the time I hit 5 miles, I had spent the first half of the run at 6.1, the third quarter at 6.3, a mile at 6.5, and the last quarter mile from 7.0 to 8.0. I finished up in about 48 minutes.

That felt a lot better.

About 3 miles in, some girl who clearly knew me walked by my treadmill, smiled at me, and waved. I waved back and spent the next 2 miles trying to figure out who the hell she was. I still don't know, but I think she might have gone to high school with me.

Hopefully I'll have time to get some exercise in tomorrow, but I also need to finish up a couple of applications that I've been working on for the past three days. Never apply to take a Bar exam. Filling out the application is entirely too much work for entirely too little payoff.

Beautiful Chicago Weather (no that is not an oxymoron)

Ok so after writing like 8 pages about the personal trainer. This one is going to be short and sweet. Today it was like 75 out in Chicago, so Gabe and I decided to go for a run. We went to this amazing forest preserve and I had a pretty sweet probably around 4 mile run, and it felt amazing.

However, I ran ahead of Gabe and his friend Ivan and when I came back to find them I thought they already went to the car, so I decided to head towards what i thought was the path back to the car. We had to go through this leafy semi-muddy area to get to the trail. However in my infinite wisdom, I thought it was this other uber muddy path that I ran into like 2 feet and realized "wow I am basically wading in mud water" I turned back and found them on the trail literally 3o seconds later. Now my running shoes are pretty much destroyed. Whoops.

The Narcissist and the Lawyer (My personal training session)

So, I havent written in here a while, so I am going to do 2 entries. The first one is for my personal training session last Wednesday. I thought I was going to be meeting with this very in shape lil blonde girl who runs marathons. I was pretty psyched as I thought she could offer some great insight. Turns out, she is the boss and doesnt train people. Instead, I got stuck with some metrosexual meathead. I could tell as soon as this guy walked up I wouldnt like training with him. He was a good looking guy, and in pretty good shape, but he had this cocky walk indicating "stick with me kid, I mean look at my muscles."

So we start by him asking me what I do when I regularly work out. I told him I run on the treadmill for about 5 miles 3-4 times a week. At this point, I think most people would be like oh not too bad, etc. This guy makes a face like I just sharted and is like "I like to call running on the treadmill the I can pick up my feet exercise." Now I get where he was coming from as it doesnt require as much energy because its on a belt, but 5 miles is still 5 miles. He asked me my mile time, and I told him and then he goes on to telling me how when he runs he can do 7 minute miles when he runs distance and 6 minute miles when he sprints. Now I had a couple of problems with this: a) this was completely unsolicited and just a way for him to tell me how mr. awesome he is b) you work at a damn gym! That's like the lil Japanese hotdog eating guy telling me how many hotdogs he can down in a minute. Its what you get paid for! I sit in an office all day.

Then we went to go do the exercises and he had me do a 10 min running warm up to which I actually did a little more then a mile. We then did a series of exercises and sprints. He would have me do lunges, or pullups, or squats, etc, and then sprint a lap. There was however one problem with this. For those of you who know me I was messing up the form of every exercise he showed me. At first he was patient and worked with me, and then I think he just kind of gave up, and let me do my modified incorrect workout. However, this type of training was crazy hard and unlike anything I have ever done. I was still sore 3 days later.

After all this working out, he told me to lie down on this little table. He then took this foam tubey thing and used it on my back to give essentially a back massage with it. Ordinarily women would be pretty excited to have some attractive man that close to them. I was skeeved out, and I hate being touched. The whole time I was just closing my eyes hoping it was over. Afterwards, we went into the office to talk figures. Of course I wasnt going to hire this guy, but I felt as though its just courtesy to let him go through his spiel. We got to talking turns out this guy also went to Illinois State for a semester. However, he spent his freshman year of college at ISU, when I was a senior. Damn I am old! My personal training session wasnt the eye opening experience I had hoped for, but I learned some new things and some new exercises to do, so overall it wasnt too bad.

I didn't know there was an 8:30 AM on Saturdays

NY Sports Club has this thing called XpressLine, which is a group of 8 machines designed to give you a complete workout in 22 minutes. They train you on it as part of your membership, and after that lousy run on Wednesday, I knew my session to do that on Thursday was just what I needed to get right back into it.

So I skipped the session to watch TV instead.

Friday night we went out for my friend's birthday, which, as he mentioned once or twice, wasn't actually on Friday. Of course, I had to have several drinks and a late Chinese dinner.

That got me in perfect shape for the NYRR 8000, an 8k run in Central Park at 8:30 this morning. But somehow, I did manage to wake up 10 minutes before my 7:00 alarm, get up to the park, and do the run. It ended up being, I'm almost positive, the first time I've run a race at or better than 10 min miles. According to my trusty runner's GPS, the race went a little long at 5.05 miles, which I ran in 49:57, or a 9:53/mi pace. I have trouble believing this, but Garmin claims I crossed the finish line at 12.7 mph.

That was my first time running in Central Park. It's a nice place to run. On the other hand, it's a nice place for almost anything you could do in a park, so that's not really surprising. Finishing the race earned me my first of the 9 qualifying races I have to run, plus the one I have to volunteer for, in order to gain automatic entry to the 2010 NYC marathon. I'll be volunteering as a chip clipper next Sunday at the Colon Cancer Challenge 4 mi run/15k run/1.7 mi walk to fulfill that part of the requirement.

Of course, I'm sure Beth will blog later today about how she ran 6 miles at 7 min per, all uphill, in a blizzard, carrying 40 lb of weight. Or, maybe she'll just walk around a 6 block area to go apartment shopping and call it "exercise." Definitely one of the two.

The wrong stuff

I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Maybe it was because I jumped right into the run at 6.3 mph instead of my usual 6.0 or 6.1, maybe it was something else, maybe I was just having an off day, but whatever it was, that workout sucked. Instead of my planned 3.5 mi run with a 1% incline and increasing speeds, I did a 3.11 mi (5k) run, with no incline for most of the second half and decreasing speeds down to 6.0, including a 2/10 mi walk in the middle.

That's so lousy I can't even make fun of it. It's too much of a joke on its own. Saturday's 8k better be an improvement over that.

Speaking of Saturday's 8k, my friend turns 27 on Monday, so he and his girlfriend are inviting people out to happy hour Friday night to celebrate. I figure that should go just fine for me the next morning. I did the Soldier Field 10 mi run last May in Chicago, and the night before, I went out for beers and free wings. Ended up running the whole thing even though I hadn't prepared for the race at all and had been sure for days that I'd be walking by the second mile. Beth beat me that day, but I'll have my vengeance at Disney. Oh yes...I shall have my vengeance.

By the way, I've never seen anybody open the curtain to an occupied changing room at my gym. I guess the people around here are just a little smarter than the people around Glenview.

back at it

So, today I went back to the gym refreshed. I did 5 miles, and to be honest, it wasnt too bad. Hopefully I am over my running funk. I think it was because it was hot and humid in the gym. Today I thought it would be the same, but I actually went to the gym and was okay. I found that the humidity and laziness were getting to me. Today, I went back and exercised waaaay longer than half an hour. Even more then twice that. *Ahem Moser*

Also, as I was in the changing room, some lady burst in on me. Luckily I wasn't in a state of undress, but basically the way our gym works, is if you are out of the changing rooms, the curtains are pushed aside. Why would this lady go in the only room that has it closed. Once again confirming the people at my gym are a lil slow. I guess if you are in shape you dont have to be smart. Luckily, I graduated law school so after this whole training thing dies down, I am thinking of eating a dozen donuts and sitting on my couch for 2 weeks.

"Let the spinning wheel spin"

I figure I won't even mention the whole Beth-not-working-out thing after this. It'll probably blow over soon anyway. She says she's going to the gym tonight. And if not, we'll just know that I'm generally a better person than she is, that's all.

So, I finally got to try the spin class at NYSC. The instructor was some guy, and he knew about half the peoples' names, so they're obviously regulars. I knew I was in trouble when all but 3 of the 17 people in the room raised their hands in answer to the question, "Who has their own heart monitor?"

I do not have my own heart monitor. The good news is, even if I did, it would have just been a waste of money. I wouldn't have had a clue of what the guy was talking about. Everything I know about lactic acid I learned from the cross examination of the doctor in "A Few Good Men," and that was not quite enough to follow along when he started talking about thresholds and different levels and all that.

Anyway, we did 3 9-minute sets on varying intensities, spending about a third of each set standing. Here's my problem with spinning, and I think I mentioned this the first time I tried it too: I have no clue what high or low resistance is. I mean, I know what I think is high or low resistance, but I don't have a clue of what the people around me think. I know, I'm just supposed to do whatever I think is right, but it drives me nuts that I have no way of knowing if what I think is medium intensity is the same as the average or whether it's higher or lower. I'd just like to know, that's all.

But, however intense my workout was compared to everyone else, it was a pretty good one for me, although not long enough. Only 30 minutes. Next time I'll pair it up with something else.

Boring workout

I was going to go for a jog...but I did that yesterday, and I don't like to do the same workout on consecutive days.

So instead I was going to hop on a bike...but I signed up for spin class tomorrow, and, well, you know the rest.

So, for a while I was just going to skip the gym. But then, I had an appetizer of cookies, and followed that up with some cookie hors d'oeuvres. I started thinking that maybe I should at least do something exercise-related. At least I'd get the added benefit of not giving Beth any material when she gets home from her personal trainer and reads this. I headed over to the gym, and I used some of the machines that I've already done, along with some crunches and push-ups, and threw in a leg press, for about 45 minutes.

Since I'm running the NYRR 8000 (just under 5 mi) on Saturday morning, I took the unusual move of planning out my exercise for the week in advance. Tomorrow will be the spin class, Wednesday will be a 3.5 mile run (hopefully outside), Thursday I'm learning the Sports Club XpressLine, an 8-machine group that promises a full body workout in 22 minutes, and Friday I'm picking up my race materials and hopefully sleeping at someone's apartment in the city (I'm talking to you, people I know who live in the city). The race will be my first qualifier towards the nine I'll need to gain automatic entry into the 2010 New York City marathon, which will probably be my last marathon for a while.

2 cheesesteaks in under 24 hours

As the title of the post indicates, I ate an ungodly amount of food while in Philly for the past couple days. Luckily, when I got back at about 3:30 today, with the weather at a cool but comfortable 65 and cloudy, I knew exactly how to work off those extra calories:

With a two and a half hour long nap.

Once that was done, though, I was ready to burn the weight I gained this weekend by...

Hanging out with my 19 month old nephew for half an hour.

But after he (and everyone else) left for dinner, which I had absolutely no interest in (I was still living off the three brunches I ate on the train ride home), I finally ran out of excuses. It had gotten cooler, into the mid 50s, but the gym was closed, so I ran outside in New York for the first time this year. It felt nice, but the problem with running outside around here is that my house is pretty much at the top of a hill. So, not only is it much more hilly around here than anything I'm used to, but inevitably, the last quarter or half mile of the run is uphill. Never a fun way to finish it off. Since I had to deal with small to medium hills for the first time in about 5 months, I took it easy today and stopped at 5k, finishing it up in 31 minutes (almost exactly 10 minute miles).

Just to make sure this post doesn't end with nothing anti-Beth, anybody else notice that Beth started having second thoughts right around the exact same time my runs consistently started roughly matching hers in difficulty? Sounds like someone is scared.

Sad realization

So, last night I went to the gym, and Chicago had a significant warm up yesterday. It was like 60. You might be thinking why didnt I run outside...well by the time I got off work it was dark, and I get lost manuvering around my house let alone running in the dark. Plus I am a scaredy cat, and it was windy. Anyways, now that I have conjured up excuses. So, needless to say, hot outside, hot in the gym. So, after I changed I started to walk to the treadmills, and I felt this sense of doom come over me. It was then I realized...gosh, I hate running.

Now I know what some of you will say. Oh you hate it cause you are on the treadmill and cant enjoy the scenery, or its boring. But, the thing is, I have run outside before, and I am not one of those people who can clear their minds when they run. Basically, here is what goes through my head when I run..."I am tired...this is taking forever...ooh this is a good song...eh I am over this song." And so on and so forth. So doing it for like an hour is draining enough let alone when training intensifies and I am running for hours at a time.

So, I ran 5 miles yesterday on the treadmill, even though I was basically over it before I even started. I have a personal training session Monday, so hopefully that will get me reinvigorated. The weird thing is, I love food, and I love not looking like Kirstie Alley, so how come I cant love running.

Oh, and just to round out this blog, Moser smells and sucks at running.

I should have gone to sleep earlier.

I stayed in the city after work for my sister's birthday dinner with her family and my dad, so I almost got home too late to get to the gym. Totally worth it to spend some time with their 19 month (in 30 minutes) old son. But, I ended up getting back just early enough to get in half an hour on the bike on random hills at level 10. I read in a book somewhere that that's roughly the equivalent of riding over the Rocky Mountains from Colorado to Canada.

Seeing an old naked guy in the locker room is gross and annoying, sure. But seeing the same guy on the train platform at 6:50 the next morning going to work, well, that's just weird.

It's getting late, and I have to pack for Philly. I'll be back on Sunday, when it's supposed to be 63 degrees here. It's looking like it'll be a day with a run outside...maybe on the way home from the driving range.

It is so on.

Yeah, that's right, I matched the 4.5 miles with a 1% incline that Beth did a week or two ago.

Wait, what's that? Beth did it at 6 mph? Well, that's pretty good, I guess, if she's trying to beat a turtle. Personally, I thought it would be more of a challenge if I went a little quicker than that. You know, more of a 6.1 for 2 1/2 miles, 6.3 for a mile, 6.5 with a sprint from 7 to 8 at the end kind of a thing. But yeah, I guess if she wants to get all excited about going the distance at what is essentially a brisk walk, or going a tiny bit further while running on what is basically a simulation of a padded cushion of air (she failed to mention that she didn't put in that 1% incline to make it feel more like real running), good for her. Whatever gets her to sleep at night.

Anyway, I knocked out the 4.5 just in time to pick up a few friends for ten cent wings, because, in addition to the cholesterol, calories, and fat, chicken wings have an iota of protein, and nothing washes down a good run better than a couple beers. Then I hung out with a couple of them until a few minutes ago, and now I have to go to sleep, because my alarm clock is going off in 5 hours whether I like it or not.

A lot of trash talking...

So, it has been a while since I have wrote in this blog, much to the chagrin of my fan (that's right singular). Anyways, I was in New York last weekend and stuck there Monday because of some snow storm. For all the trash talking New Yorkers do about how much better their weather is, it sure screwed me. Anyways, Moser and I did in fact run with me on Saturday, and I find it amusing how he bragged about "matching me." That's not something to brag about, and we only did 4 miles, which is less than I usually run but we took it down a lil for Moser. It was kind of weird cause the gym went to had mirrors in front of the treadmills. I felt very vain just staring at myself when I ran, although I must admit, I looked good. :)

Anyways, after not running since Saturday I went back to the gym today and did 5 miles in 46 minutes and 30 seconds. Moser said something about running 4.5 miles at an incline, but as you read I did that a few weeks ago, so its nice he's bragging about things I already did. Also, since I renewed with my gym they had a personal training session for like 20 bux. So next Monday I am meeting with this tiny lil personal trainer from my gym who runs marathons. I am pretty psyched and she seems pretty energetic, so we shall see how that goes.

IM

Beth: i went to the gym today

Beth: actually i didnt

Beth: this was a test of the gym broadcasting system

Beth: this is what would appear if i actually went to the gym

Beth: however this is just a test

Remember Beth? I don't either.

Sure has gotten lonely over here at Jews for Jogging. I'm sure Beth has all sorts of excuses for why she didn't work out today. She'll probably say something like, her transportation from New York City to home got canceled, and she was stuck. Well, I'm not buying it. First of all, I know she has workout clothes and shoes with her, and her membership at Bally's gets her in the door at their NYC locations. Second, my transportation from New York City to home got canceled too, and I managed to work out. Granted, hers was a flight to Chicago, delaying her trip back by a full 24 hours, and mine was the express train to Long Island, and I was able to take the local that left 10 minutes later. Still, it was pretty rough. I had to spend my train ride home on a local train, with the common folk, most of whom, it must be assumed, are lepers.

Anyway, after navigating an LIRR schedule filled with delays and cancellations to get back to Great Neck, I headed out to the gym, and with no running yesterday, I decided to get on the treadmill today and kick it up a notch. I did 4 miles again, and since I ran it at a higher speed than usual with Beth on Saturday, I now know I can do it at that speed, and there's really no excuse not to, so I did it the same way today. But today, I added in that 1% incline that I had mentioned to Beth, to more accurately simulate running outside instead of on a treadmill. It definitely makes a difference. After 2 miles, I wasn't even sure I'd make it to 5k, let alone my goal. But somehow, I got there. Now I guess I'll have to do 4.5 at some point in the next week, especially since I'm signed up for an 8k race a week from Saturday.

An observation I had today: People always tell you the positives about getting in shape. You'll lose weight, you'll have more energy, your posture will improve, all that kind of stuff. Nobody ever talks about the negatives. For example, today I was getting ready for work and noticed that I'm halfway between holes on my belt. I had to decide between being really uncomfortable or feeling like my pants were going to fall off. That's just a lousy choice.

And yes, I know, everyone who took the Bar last week is only thinking one thing after reading that first paragraph: "Leprosy? That's a loathsome disease. You just committed slander per se!" Well, if you are thinking that, I have good news for you. The test is actually over now and you don't have to think that anymore. But I also have some bad news. You thought about the elements of defamation while reading a blog about running, so you're kind of a loser.

Unlazy Sunday

If you listen really carefully, you can hear the sound of Beth not working out.

Apparently, my household was not the only one that thought it would be a good idea to get to the supermarket today, with a forecast of 10 to 14 inches of snow overnight. While spending the better part of the afternoon there after the gym, I had plenty of time to realize this about one of the people I kept passing in every aisle: If you have 3 chins, and you're wearing spandex, you're pissing everyone else off.

Only in New York would it be a superstore.

Good news! My cousin gave me a diagnosis over e-mail on that ankle pain I get. It looks like I might have Achilles tendinitis! I looked it up, and it seems to be a problem in people who increase their activity significantly after a long period of not moving at all. Shocking that that would affect me, when I didn't move at all for the first 21 years of my life and most of the past 5 years as well. Hopefully his advice, to stretch in the morning and at night, in addition to what I already do before I run, helps it out.

So last night I had one of the more exciting Saturday nights I've had in a while. After the 4 hours of sleep, 3 hours of walking, and 4 miles of running, I made it to about 9:30 PM before I realized that I had no idea what TV show I had been watching for the past half hour because I could barely keep my eyes open. So I turned out the light, got into bed, and was passed out by 10. On a Saturday. Am I cool or what? On the plus side, I slept for 11 hours, and I was ready for today's workout.

I had my free personal trainer workout with the new gym today. It was pretty good, I learned a lot of new exercises, but since it was just a sample of what I could get with a trainer, it was more about doing a little bit of everything than doing a few things a lot, which would have been a better workout. Still, it's good to know a handful of new exercises to do, and many of them I can do from home if I want.

Wait, I thought I just heard Beth lacing up her running shoes.

Oh, no, sorry, that was just the wind.

I'm gonna feel that tomorrow.

I took yesterday off to rest up before trying to match Beth's speed. After getting about 4 hours of sleep, and spending 3 hours walking around Chelsea Market and the meatpacking district with Beth, eating samples of like 9 different foods, I figured it would be the perfect time to run 4 miles faster than I ever have before, because, hey, what better time to run than when you're tired and full?

Side note: if you've never been to Chelsea Market, on the west side of 9th Ave between 15th and 16th, go check it out some time. Some guy bought the building 10 years ago when the area was a dump and gave really cheap 20 year leases to a bunch of independent retailer/wholesalers, and now they all have really good food for really good prices, and I believe most, if not all of them, are open 24/7. Unfortunately, the landlord sold it to a group more interested in profit, so it's not going to last forever.

Anyway, after the tour, we got to the gym, got ready, did our warmups, and kicked it up to 6.1 mph for the first 2 miles, then 6.3 for a mile, then 6.5 until we sprinted from 7 to 8 mph in the last quarter mile, hitting 4 miles a little north of 38 minutes. I actually thought I might have to stop in the first quarter mile, because I had gotten that shooting pain in the back of my ankle that I've mentioned a couple times, on the right side. I should probably find out what that is, but after a 5 or 10 seconds, it passed and I had no trouble. After that we did some crunches and assisted pull-ups, and then headed out.

So, the important thing to take out of all this is that I matched Beth's speed over 4 miles, and it only took a month.

Ludicrous speed!

Beth's going to be in New York City this weekend (her boyfriend lives in Brooklyn), so on Saturday we're meeting up and doing a food tour of Chelsea Market and the meatpacking district. If you've never done a food tour and you like touristy stuff, I recommend it. You walk around for 3 hours, learn a little about the history of the area, and taste a sample of the food of about half a dozen local restaurants and food shops.

Anyway, after the tour, we're going to head over to a nearby New York Sports Club and, with my membership and a guest pass, we're going to run, and I think we're both just kind of assuming it'll be a race. And, knowing that she usually runs faster than me, I figured tonight would be a good time to try kicking it up a notch. So I did something that I don't think I've ever done (outside of the final sprint of a run). I raised my treadmill speed above 6.0 mph. That's right. For 4 miles, I went all the way up to the stunningly fast speed of.......wait for it.......

6.1 mph.

That shaved about 9 or 10 seconds off each mile, and with the sprint at the end, I finished in just over 39 minutes.

So, in the past 2 days, I've biked over 10 miles, ran 4, and spent about half an hour doing miscellaneous exercises. Meanwhile, in the same amount of time, Beth has done....hang on, let's add it all up carefully....carry the 1....oh, right. Beth has done no exercise and, instead, has skipped the gym to eat and drink.

I'm not saying that for any particular reason. Just thought I'd mention it.